Letter: Waste not, want not, politicians

I was somewhat amused the other day when I heard someone in government wants to increase the federal gas tax by 15 cents over three years. It seems the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money. If the increase is approved it would supply around $170 billion over 10 years.

I was somewhat amused the other day when I heard someone in government wants to increase the federal gas tax by 15 cents over three years. It seems the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money. If the increase is approved it would supply around $170 billion over 10 years.

The humor that I personally find in all this is that it’s been the government who keeps telling people to conserve gas! Now, they are going to penalize you for doing it because they are making less money. Unless another source of income can be found, this increase could become reality.

Actually, another source of income already exists that can be used. It’s the $95 billion a year that the Government Accounting Office states is the amount of money wasted by our own government every year.

This amount includes $600 million in benefits it pays to dead people each year. Yes, that’s right. The government sends out checks to people who are no longer alive. Another $890,000 is paid because of certain empty bank accounts. The government is on the hook for the $65 maintenance fee for each account.

The point is that this ridiculous spending needs to stop immediately. Veterans are dying in hospitals and we are sending checks to dead people! How about if each politician who attends a party at taxpayer expense has one less olive in their martini? We would get everything paid off.